Hiyoribo (Ibaraki)

Hiyoribo is a child-form entity that brings clear weather. Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Gazu Zoku Hyakki (Anei 8, 1779) records "Hiyoribo: it is in the deep mountains of Hitachi Province, appearing on clear days and unseen on rainy days," placing it in mountainous Hitachi (modern Ibaraki Prefecture). In Sekien's picture the figure is a small child standing among rocks and trees on a sunny day, vanishing in rain. From the late Edo period onward writers and folklorists linked Hiyoribo with the child-shaped weather charm teru-teru-bozu (also called hiyori-bozu) in both etymology and image. Yanagita Kunio and others later read the figure in the context of weather divination and child-form visiting deities. Murakami Kenji's Nihon Yokai Daijiten (Kadokawa, 2005) treats it as a discrete entry, and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies Yokai Folklore Database also records it.